Are you in the Loop? Top secrets....

By contrast, what Wikileaks was dealing with was classified information, which the 4.2 million Americans with security clearances already could read.

Yes, you read that number right. In its first public count ever, the intelligence community reported to Congress in September that 4.2 million Americans have security clearances, with nearly 1.2 million of those being "Top Secret."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com...

1.2 million americans have top secret security clearance. Thats quite a big number. People often dismiss many conspiracies on the basis that too many people would be invovled in the cover up. 1.2million.

Why the hell are these people so special that they are allowed access to this information and YOU ARE NOT!

Originally posted by JohnySeagull
People often dismiss many conspiracies on the basis that too many people would be invovled in the cover up. 1.2million.

Compart
mentali
zation.

reply to post by JohnySeagull


Sometimes carrying a secret involves information you would rather not know, and therefore it can also be a lifelong burden. Just saying.

reply to post by aboutface


this is more about the government deciding information it wants to hide from the public, not about guilt someone is feeling over information they have on their best friend on facebook. just saying.

1.2 million with Top Secret access? IDK about that. With that many people with access one would think that every conspiracy would have been outed by now. Either the number is wrong or the juicy stuff is Above Top Secret.

reply to post by ColCurious


possibly. but i would think that if you have 'top secret' clearance you probably have access to certain databases that allows you to havev a good nose around.

Top secret or just secret classification isn't any where near as exciting as people may want to believe.
Half of the time it's just about protecting information they don't want competitors to have.
Sometimes you just need the clearance to be a factory worker, nothing special.

reply to post by JohnySeagull

Yeah sure to certain databases. Top secret is not a very high level and everything "game changing" is definitely above top secret

Originally posted by pazcat
Top secret or just secret classification isn't any where near as exciting as people may want to believe.
Half of the time it's just about protecting information they don't want competitors to have.
Sometimes you just need the clearance to be a factory worker, nothing special.

edit on 11-12-2011 by pazcat because: (no reason given)

QFT

I had a TS/SCI (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information) for almost 20 years while active duty U.S. Navy and seriously outside of a few contingency operation briefings over in the 5th Fleet AOR (Iraq/Afghanistan), most of my needing an TS/SCI clearance involved handling a bunch of boring crypto codes that I could care less about (other than my losing them and it being both my ass and my career) that upon looking at them was like looking at nothing more than random numbers/letters/punch holes/etc that were used to load secure electronic equipment (digital data/voice communications that I knew NOTHING about the inner workings of as I was only an "operator").

If 1.2 million U.S. citizens have TS or higher clearances, I will say that probably 1.199999 have them mainly for boring routine crap that is but only the smaller piece of a larger puzzle (compartmentalized) that they could probably give a rats ass about, other than making damn sure that they remain accountable/responsible for the material the entire time it is in their possession

A security clearance is not enough to access any and all classified(at or below that "level").

You need to have a a valid "need to know.": A need for access to the information to perform your job. Anything REALLY "close hold" is controlled via compartmentalized programs. which have limited slots and several other layers of approval and vetting any way.
Even at that;very few people in a compartmentalized program will ever see the entire project come together.

Originally posted by JohnySeagull

By contrast, what Wikileaks was dealing with was classified information, which the 4.2 million Americans with security clearances already could read.

Yes, you read that number right. In its first public count ever, the intelligence community reported to Congress in September that 4.2 million Americans have security clearances, with nearly 1.2 million of those being "Top Secret."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com...

1.2 million americans have top secret security clearance. Thats quite a big number. People often dismiss many conspiracies on the basis that too many people would be invovled in the cover up. 1.2million.

Why the hell are these people so special that they are allowed access to this information and YOU ARE NOT!

edit on 11-12-2011 by JohnySeagull because: (no reason given)

Seriously there is no reason to get that worked up over the whole thing because even if those people with clearances WANTED to somehow get "secrets" out to the "common" citizen, the ONLY secrets that 1.99999 million could get you would be stuff that would either do you absolutely no good in knowing in the first place, or would be completely alien to you (as in codes, NOT Alien as in "Aliens" ). It is...well here to use a recently famous coined term...the 1% of those within the DoD/Governmental agencies that have TS/SCI or HIGHER (CIA/NSA/DIA/FBI/Etc...) THOSE are the ones with the bigger pieces of the puzzle, and even I with over 20 year U.S. military experience holding a TS/SCI clearance do NOT know any of those folks so I am in just as in the dark as you or the next person is

(hell if I weren't there wouldn't be such a need to have a profile here and have ATS saved as my homepage each time I start Firefox )

It's far better to be outside of the loop, and to remain ambiguous, illusive and inaccurately defined, and profiled as someone else, and then to be able to "unofficially" enter and navigate inside the loop and escape undetected.

Those inside are trapped, confined, corrupted and controlled.

Where would you like to go?

reply to post by JohnySeagull

Not much of a secret if 4.2 million people are in on it.
Or even "just" 1.2 million.
Just sayin.
I mean, when I want somebody to keep a secret, I don't want them telling 4 million people!

1 - 4 million in the know, and the rest of us in the dark... That's not keeping a secret. That's conspiring together, is what it is.

Originally posted by JohnySeagull

By contrast, what Wikileaks was dealing with was classified information, which the 4.2 million Americans with security clearances already could read.

Yes, you read that number right. In its first public count ever, the intelligence community reported to Congress in September that 4.2 million Americans have security clearances, with nearly 1.2 million of those being "Top Secret."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com...

1.2 million americans have top secret security clearance. Thats quite a big number. People often dismiss many conspiracies on the basis that too many people would be invovled in the cover up. 1.2million.

Why the hell are these people so special that they are allowed access to this information and YOU ARE NOT!

edit on 11-12-2011 by JohnySeagull because: (no reason given)

Yes, i'm "in the loop" . I have access to TS/SCI information as needed to complete my job, aka the Need-To-Know. Most of the time it's pretty much "meh".

On the other hand janitors at say the National Security Agency also have clearances in order to access classified areas to do their daily cleaning.

That's where Compartmentalization and Need-to-Know come into play. Just because i may have the same clearance as the guy next to me or that NSA janitor, doesn't mean we can access the same information.

reply to post by JohnySeagull


No need for condescension is there? I was referring to the same thing, to national secrets. Our official history says it one way, but some of us do know otherwise about one or more details, and it is not something we would choose to know if given the choice.

I hold the highest level of security clearance, but that does not mean that Iam privvy to every peace of sensitive imformation. My work demands this level of clearance so that if I should become aware of any protected data I am legally obliged not to share that imformation outside of those with the appropriate clearance level. My security clearance also allows me to protect persons in pocession of sensitive imformation, and any assets that are covered under an act of law designed to protect the national interest.

Originally posted by JohnySeagull
Why the hell are these people so special that they are allowed access to this information and YOU ARE NOT!

Secret clearance is easy to get and top secret is no big deal if your record is clean. The really good stuff is Above Top Secret and higher.

There are many on ATS that have various clearance and if you look and listen you can spot them

Also don't forget that just because you have a top secret clearance doesn't mean you know anything about a particular topic. I bet the people who prepare the food at the White House need top secret clearance

Originally posted by JohnySeagull
possibly. but i would think that if you have 'top secret' clearance you probably have access to certain databases that allows you to havev a good nose around.

Nosing around where your nose doesn't belong will get you arrested real fast. And yes clearance gives you access

Internet is for the peons.. set up by DARPA to track us The other nets are...

NiPRNET Sensitive and confidential
SiPRNET Secret
JWICS Top Secret and mostly military
The 'Global' as its referred to by those on it That one has the good stuff

Most top secret stuff is boring embassy communications and military maneuvers and weapons that you don't have a need to know.

Originally posted by aboutface
reply to post by JohnySeagull

 

Sometimes carrying a secret involves information you would rather not know, and therefore it can also be a lifelong burden. Just saying.

More likely is that certain people only need to know certain elements.

Plausible deniability if it's something that big in other words.

Like in the final season of 24, President Allison Taylor was given the choice to have plausible deniability but she chose instead to know everything that was going on and in the end admitted to the world what she knew about the Russian plot to shatter the Middle East peace and stepped down from office in front of the UN and live tv cameras.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
It's far better to be outside of the loop, and to remain ambiguous, illusive and inaccurately defined, and profiled as someone else, and then to be able to "unofficially" enter and navigate inside the loop and escape undetected.

Very true That way when someone inside drops you a hint where to look, you haven't signed any non disclosure agreements

The down side is you can't use your source as proof So while you end up 'in the know', you can't convince anyone else

I have one contact who is 45th wing space command... his job was to assign secrecy level to documents before sending them to the Pentagon... I just wish just once he would let one drop